An announcement in the Times newspaper on 12 January. With black border Photograph: The Times

Guardian Australia investigations suggest Murdoch could have paid close to £300 ($US436) for the classified, though as the executive chairman of News Corporation, which owns the Times, it seems reasonable to assume that he would not have paid full price.

He, or his representative, did shell out extra for a black border.

News Corp Australia journalists have been among those to congratulate the couple on social media.

This will be Murdoch’s fourth marriage, and Hall’s second – or first, depending on how much credence you give Mick Jagger’s claim, made during divorce proceedings in 1999, that their Hindu ceremony in Bali in 1990 was invalid.

Murdoch has been married to former flight attendant Patricia Booker, journalist Anna Torv and most recently Wendi Deng, whom he divorced in 2013 after 14 years of marriage.

The Times quoted a spokesman for the Murdoch family as saying, “They have loved these past months together, are thrilled to be getting married and excited about their future.”

A source told the Daily Mail that “he is very happy, and she makes him laugh”.